Washington state has no state income tax, which in California is a little under 10%: https://www.tax-brackets.org/californiataxtable https://www.tax-brackets.or

Washington state has no state income tax, which in California is a little under 10%: https://www.tax-brackets.org/californiataxtable https://www.tax-brackets.org/californiataxtable Works out to $9k according to this for a single filer: https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#8TRRj8YaEI https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#8TRRj... -- so your additional income is more like $11k, or just under $1k / mo. In my experience, the difference in housing is far more than $1k/mo, so you come out ahead in Seattle. EDIT: Looks like I forgot about California's other taxes on payroll, so it's actually even more in Seattle's favor.